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Steelhead vs Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead enhanced bandwidth efficiency, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved user experience without additional tools or upgrades.
Sentiment score
5.7
Versa's SASE improved speed and user experience, but financial benefits remain uncertain and require detailed analysis.
Without Steelhead, we would have spent much more on bandwidth costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Steelhead's customer service and technical support are efficient, knowledgeable, and responsive, though complex issues may face slower resolution.
Sentiment score
6.0
Versa's SASE platform receives mixed reviews, praised for expertise but criticized for slow, less specialized support compared to competitors.
Steelhead's support is generally good for typical issues yet can be time-consuming during complex problem-solving across teams, particularly for Active Directory integration.
Riverbed's customer service and technical support would be rated an eight.
I work with a partner, not directly with the OEM, which makes getting technical support on call very challenging.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Steelhead efficiently scales for SMBs and enterprises, managing up to 20,000 users with effective traffic handling and deployment support.
Sentiment score
7.4
Versa SASE Platform is scalable, ideal for large enterprises, with easy capacity increase, though less suited for smaller businesses.
It allows us to maximize use from our MPLS providers by handling traffic efficiently across phased deployments.
The scalability from a performance point of view is good, but from a commercial perspective, it is low.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Steelhead offers stable, efficient network operations with minimal downtime, robust performance, and reliable support, ensuring continuous traffic flow.
Sentiment score
7.3
Users praise Versa SASE Platform's stability and reliability, with Dell hardware preferred, resolving initial firmware issues successfully.
It's quite stable and provides all necessary alerts if something is wrong.
Steelhead helps significantly with large data transfers.
 

Room For Improvement

Steelhead needs improved traffic handling, encryption optimization, enhanced response times, better integration, and user support with fewer scaling limitations.
Versa SASE Platform requires enhanced features, better integration, improved stability, and AI incorporation, while being costly and lacking resources.
It could still be useful in places with satellite communications, such as the south of Chile, or in the mining industry.
It would help if Riverbed could prevent such drastic impacts during updates.
There should be more technical materials and certifications available to improve awareness and skills in the industry.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Steelhead costly yet valuable for TCP optimization, with complex licensing and comparable alternatives like SolarWinds.
Versa SASE offers cost-effective pricing with SD-WAN and firewall integration, appealing to users for its agility and support.
Buying the hardware initially is costly, but yearly maintenance and licenses are not as expensive.
Steelhead is considered an expensive solution in our country.
The solution is very expensive, costing above one crore Indian rupees for our setup, which spans around twenty five branches.
 

Valuable Features

Steelhead optimizes WAN with compression and caching, enhancing network efficiency and reducing costs in bandwidth-limited environments.
Versa Unified SASE enhances cost-efficiency and flexibility with advanced features, centralized management, scalability, and intuitive deployment.
Functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP, and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency.
Steelhead's most valuable feature is its ability to hash and send only the important parts of the information, avoiding the resending of data.
The most valuable features of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) are application prioritization, advanced routing features, and network gateway firewall capabilities.
 

Categories and Ranking

Steelhead
Ranking in WAN Edge
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (3rd)
Versa Unified Secure Access...
Ranking in WAN Edge
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (9th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the WAN Edge category, the mindshare of Steelhead is 1.1%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform is 4.7%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
WAN Edge
 

Featured Reviews

Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency & bandwidth saving, best layer 7 QoS shaping policy can be achieved with ease
There are several features specific to branches, like keeping data hot and active on Steelhead devices. These features prevent unnecessary data travel across the international MPLS. Additionally, functions like acting as an NTP server, DNS, DHCP for branches and auto-optimization mode enhance efficiency along with really good QoS for bandwidth shaping.
PriyankDubey - PeerSpot reviewer
A flexible, stable and scalable solution
I don't have issues with the hardware, as the requisite capacity is visible in the data sheets. All the details in the data sheets are accounted for. But, I find myself confused when it comes to combining this with the software. I have not come across documentation on the Versa website which would provide information about the parameters for selecting the appropriate license. For this we are assisted by the solution's design engineer and the Versa team. I do what I can as a project manager and make the best suggestions I am capable of concerning the competition. Future releases should contain AI for the voice feature. SSL VPN is lacking in the solution. I wish to see this in the near future.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...
What do you like most about Riverbed Steelhead?
One of our most valuable features is Steelhead's cloud migration optimization. Moving to the cloud helped optimize our workflow, improving performance for end-users.
What is your primary use case for Riverbed Steelhead?
In the past, we have sold a lot of Steelhead ( /products/steelhead-reviews ) for retail companies, insurance companies, some finance companies, and some engineering companies. Steelhead ( /products...
What do you like most about Versa FlexVNF?
Versa is a good centralized solution, where you're setting up your infrastructure in a data center type thing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Versa FlexVNF?
Both Versa and VMware are cheap in terms of the router. I find Versa a little more expensive than VMware in terms of remote access and secure web gateway elements.
What needs improvement with Versa FlexVNF?
We've had the odd occasional stability issue with software upgrades, etcetera. They don't support certain other third-party applications, which can be a bit limiting at times, whereas VMware seems ...
 

Also Known As

RIverbed Steelhead
Versa FlexVNF, FlexVNF, Versa Titan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ElAraby, SFK Leblanc, Bobst Group, Northwest Pipe Company, Halkbank, Tradebridge, EFG Hermes
CenturyLink, RCN Business, Colt Technology Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Steelhead vs. Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,600 professionals have used our research since 2012.